APPENDIX III 383 



kitchen. Her two assistants were usually not of mucli 

 help, often a direct hindrance. Few cooks have to 

 work under such difficulties, yet Pauletta was always 

 willing, always cheerful, always ready to help some 

 one else at his task in addition to her own. 



The children are well-behaved. Three were home 

 during my stay at the house. One, the eldest of the 

 three, is a pretty girl, fifteen years of age, but wild and 

 frivolous as an Eskimo, little help in the house. Leo, 

 a spoiled lad of eight or nine, rules the household, even 

 his father, when he chooses. His thin lips, tight closed, 

 show how cruel and stern he may become in time. 

 Esther, the baby of the family, is a typical little golden- 

 haired, blue-eyed Danish lass as pretty as a picture and 

 as girlish as if she had not a trace of Eskimo blood in 

 her. In all her ways and in her temperament and 

 character she is Dane rather than Eskimo. 



During the five months of my stay there I was not 

 once reminded by word or deed that I was almost a 

 self-imposed guest or that my stay there made serious 

 inroads upon the meager supply of Danish provisions, 

 such as butter, sugar, and canned goods, in the larder. 

 No matter how trying the day, how gloomy the pros- 

 pect, the entire household were kind to me and thought- 

 ful of my comfort. 



I obtained a team of eight dogs and bought a sledge 

 from my host. With this equipment I was able to 

 sledge about the colony whenever conditions permitted. 



After I had begun sledging I was about home but 

 little. Most of the time I was out seal-hunting. As 

 soon as the season opened I set a line of eight seal-nets, 

 which I had to visit every other day, and two shark- 

 lines that I had to attend carefully. I caught almost 



